Federal prisoner pleads guilty to local charges

JONESBORO - A man who pleaded guilty in federal court to advertisement of child pornography also pleaded to local charges of negligent homicide and sexual assault.

Second Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Brent Davis sentenced Steven Wayne Thorpe, 44, of Jonesboro, to 12 years of probation for sexual assault in the second-degree and 10 years probation for two counts of negligent homicide and second-degree forgery.

Patrick C. Harris, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced on July 5 that Thorpe will spend more than 21 years in federal prison for advertising child pornography.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Brian S. Miller imposed the sentence of 21.8 years for both counts. There is no parole in the federal system. When Thorpe is released upon completion of his sentence, he will remain on supervised release for the rest of his life. Conditions of his supervised release include registering as a sex offender and having no contact with minors under the age of 18.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the investigation into Thorpe's crimes began in June 2014, when two people brought Thorpe's phone and computer to the Jonesboro Police Department and reported that they had seen sexually explicit photos of a minor on Thorpe's phone.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Jonesboro Detective Jason Simpkins showed the phone to the witness who identified it as the one containing the images.

Simpkins said the wallpaper on the phone screen contained an image of Thorpe, and it also had his name across the screen.

According to the affidavit, police obtained a search warrant to search the phone and discovered "a large number of images, which are believed to be either child pornography or images of children involved in sexually explicit activity."

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, investigators found over 20,000 images of child pornography.

The U.S.Secret Service then obtained a search warrant for Thorpe's laptop computer, which contained more than 1,400 images of child pornography. In addition to the photos of children being sexually abused, agents also discovered that Thorpe had accessed online chatrooms through a computer program called Gigatribe. In these chats, Thorpe advertised to other users that he had child pornography available, including "doctor/patient, dad/son, hidden cams, massage," and "getting caught, locker/school rooms, and public videos." Thorpe would then send other users a link to a folder containing his child pornography along with his password, "boys777."

On July 16, 2014, a judge found sufficient evidence to charge Thorpe on suspicion of second-degree sexual assault after an investigation into allegations that he molested a young girl.

According to a police report, the girl initially told a family member she was touched inappropriately by Thorpe and was later interviewed by police.

Thorpe was also scheduled for a jury trial on several charges related to a deadly 2012 car accident, according to Craighead County Circuit Court records.

Thorpe was driving a commercial vehicle Oct. 30, 2012, on Arkansas 226 east of Cash when he "failed to keep a proper lookout ahead, and struck the rear of another vehicle pulling a trailer as he took evasive action by steering to the left."

Two people died as a result of the accident.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Thorpe was found to have a forged driver's medical certificate. This information was obtained by an agent for the U.S. Department of Transportation.